What to do with a train...

[lovetriangle]

Ok, the Pfalzgräfin Dorothea Sabina von Neuburg dress from JA's PoF has a train. And I like it. I've cut my skirt with a train but the reality is that I'll be wearing this outdoors over dirt, rocks, twigs, etc. 

I've see the Holbein sketch of the Tudor dress kirtled up in the back but I've never seen anything showing later period dresses pinned up. Is there such an example out there? Or any such evidence as to what late period ladies did with their trains out of doors? I really don't want to cut the skirt straight but I will if kirtling was just not done around 1600.

Comments

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

Hi there - someone else on my f-list just linked to this gorgeous costume:
http://www.alyxxndon.com/Alyxx/AugsburgGallery.htm

and in reading about it, I saw a link to your LJ, and finally connected the two! I look through your costumes and wow, they are all gorgeous.

But I have to say I'm totally taken with that pink Augsburg dress - the color scheme and the style just make my brain happy for some reason! Beautiful job on it! Just wanted to say so! :-)

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

Thank you so very much!

That dress is so much fun to wear, too! The color is very happy and the skirt is very flippy, and I just love wearing it. I feel like a pretty, pretty princess! Every girl should have a pretty pink dress. :-)

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

It looks light and comfy! Very pretty! Yay! :-)

[sewphisticate.livejournal.com]

I love trains in theory; in fact, however, they are the devil's spawn that follow behind you and taunt the generally lead-footed populace to tear your skirt from its moorings. Trains also fancy a rewarding career in the fast-growing field of waste management. It terrifies me even to think about the souvenirs that collect on the B side of a trained gown. It's sort of like me and long hair. I like the idea of long hair, but whenever I grow it past my ears I just pull it into a pony tail and tie it out of my face. So, if all you're going to do is tie up your train, why bother? Now if you're palnning to stand at the top of a staircase and look gorgeous as your gown cascades down the stairs, that's a whole 'nother thing entirely.

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

I am hoping for a cascading opportunity, but I can't guarantee it. I just really LIKE the way this one looks and I don't mind kirtling it as long as I can support the idea. I have NO INTENTION of actually dragging a train about that wretched lake-bottom of silt where our faire is now.

Ggggrrrrrrrr, I'll probably just end up cutting it straight like everyone else who's made this dress. harumph.

[sewphisticate.livejournal.com]

>>I'll probably just end up cutting it straight like everyone else who's made this dres
Yes, but yours will look better than everyone else's...

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

LOL! This implies I may FINISH it someday! LOL!

[sarahbellem.livejournal.com]

Well, if you want to reverse engineer it, assume that if people were kirtling up their trains in 1530, they probably were doing it in 1570, 1580, 1590, etc. since, at least as far as I know, detachable trains weren't in existence.

But yeah. Trains are nice in theory, but horrible in practice. I was sorely tempted to put one on the Eleanor Benlowes gown, but I'm glad I restrained myself. Katie had a good train on her Tudor gown and I watched people step on it all night even when it was kirtled up at the back, including herself (and a few instances where she forgot her petticoat was trained as well and stood REALLY close to closing elevator doors) and finally, someone just stepped really good and hard on the hem during a dance and ripped the whole front half of the skirt from the bodice, thereby signaling an end to the night's festivities.

So yeah, trains are more pain than they're worth.

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

I know, I know, but you're talking to the girl who made my Cranach gown 6" longer than floor length so it would be "correct". nnnnnkay? I never said I was SANE... LOL!

I figured kirtling must have been done but I was hoping for a nifty image I hadn't seen before... *sigh* oh well. I'm still trying to figure out how someone would step on a gown that was kirtled... or at least in some way more significant than the kind of stomping that happens in my regular Eliz. clothing...

[sarahbellem.livejournal.com]

Then go for it. I'm not trying to talk you out of it, just trying to say that in *my* experience, it has been nothing but a hassle.

I'm still trying to figure out how someone would step on a gown that was kirtled

You and me both. I thought she'd be fine with the train kirtled up, but all I know is that Katie came running over to me clutching her skirt which was completely ripped out of the bodice, seething that someone had stomped on the skirt somehow while she was dancing. And I have yet to reattach the skirt, because it's just so disheartening to see all that hard work gone because some idiot can't keep track of his own feet in relation to a long skirt.

And he didn't even apologize! ::sigh::

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

LOL, I know what a hassle it is... that's why I'm hoping someone can talk me out of it! LOL!

But alas, I think Realm of Venus has just cemented my need for the train. ... now if only I could find a little boy...

"some idiot can't keep track of his own feet in relation to a long skirt. And he didn't even apologize! ::sigh::"
oh. my. god. Did she slap him? Anything? How could someone obviously damage someone else's property THAT badly and not bother to say sorry?!?!? I am astonished! But not surprised that he can't keep track of his feet. So few men nowadays can, as I learn teh hard way every single time I costume an opera that involves hoops, trains, togas, you name it...

[pinque.livejournal.com]

Apparently there are some dress hooks from the 16thC, not sure if they were used for skirts or (as mentioned on some list somewhere) to keep the pointy end of black partlets in place at the back.

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

I always wondered about those pointy partlets...

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

You're a gem, thanks!

I wonder if that's also what's going on here... after seeing yours, I'm inlcined to think so.
http://www.tudor-portraits.com/Elizabeth34.jpg